Classical Reviews
Coote, Philharmonia, Gardiner, Southbank Centre online review - English masterworksSaturday, 08 May 2021
This Philharmonia concert from the Royal Festival Hall comprised three masterworks of English music, following a (welcome) trend that has emerged in COVID-era streamed concerts in digging out a couple of smaller-scale, less often programmed pieces to put alongside a sure-fire hit. Read more... |
BBC Young Musician 2020 Finale, BBC Four review - poise versus extraterrestrial ecstasyTuesday, 04 May 2021
“You have to be careful you’re not judging the piece,” cautioned a pearl-necklaced Nicholas Daniel, great oboist and winner of the 1980 BBC Young Musician (of the Year, as it then was). Read more... |
Booth, Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall online review - contemporary music programme lacks diversityWednesday, 28 April 2021
Wigmore Hall does not dish up a great deal of contemporary music, preferring a menu of mainstream chamber music. Read more... |
Connolly, Middleton, Leeds Lieder online review - epic voyage on a luxury vesselTuesday, 27 April 2021
Some lockdown-era recital programmes have doled out miserly short measures, as performers gallop through a brief, rushed hour (or less) of music as if afraid to tax the online patience of their disembodied audience. Read more... |
Brian Elias Focus Day, Concert 1, Wigmore Hall online review - portrait of the artist in miniatureMonday, 26 April 2021
What comes to mind when you think of Brian Elias? The violence and humming, background threat of The Judas Tree, his score for Kenneth MacMillan’s brutal final ballet... Read more... |
Greig, I Fagiolini online review - poetry and music to redeem a damaged worldSaturday, 24 April 2021
I Fagiolini do not just do choral concerts. Indeed, director Robert Hollingworth claimed in the pre-concert chat, he finds choral concerts boring. Read more... |
The Gesualdo Six, St Martin-in-the-Fields online review - perfectly polished polyphonyTuesday, 20 April 2021
For their concert debut at St Martin-in-the-Fields, The Gesualdo Six brought a programme of English motets for the final instalment in the venue's trio of Easter concerts. Read more... |
Hough, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester online review - brassy, bouncy optimismFriday, 16 April 2021
Sir Mark Elder is back with the Hallé for the latest (and penultimate) filmed concert in their “Winter Season” of 2020 and 2021, including the world premiere of Huw Watkins' Second Symphony. He introduces it from the Bridgewater Hall foyer, and mentions plans for a six-concert summer series with audiences present in the hall – well, let’s hope so. Read more... |
Isserlis, LPO, Elder, Southbank Centre online review – songs of life and deathThursday, 15 April 2021
The Southbank Centre automatically stuck the trusty “Bohemian Rhapsodies” headline on this London Philharmonic Orchestra concert of Czech music streamed from the still-deserted Royal Festival Hall. Given Janáček’s presence on the bill, they should have made that “Moravian” as well. I know – get a life. Read more... |
Benjamin Grosvenor, Barbican online review - black magic and golden-age gorgeousnessTuesday, 13 April 2021
I can’t deny that it’s great to be able to experience a recital by Benjamin Grosvenor live from the Barbican despite lockdown, streamed into your own home. Read more... |
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